The push to go “antibiotic-free” has been gaining considerable steam as of late. People are growing increasingly worried about the possibility that they’ve taken antibiotics for granted and a highly resistant superbug is going to murder us all. This growing concern is impacting not only the minds of paranoid hypochondriacs but also plenty of rational thinking people and the fast food industry.
A few months ago, everyone’s favorite burger joint, In-N-Out, announced that they planned to eliminate the use of beef fed a diet inclusive of antibiotics. While In-N-Out’s plans committed to no timeline, when it does make the change it will join Panera Bread and Chipotle, the only chains proclaiming that the majority of their meat and poultry is produced without routine use of antibiotics.
Now another fast food giant – Pizza Hut – is hoping to join that same small group. According to Eater, Pizza Hut has announced that meats containing BHA/BHT will no longer be used beginning July 2016. Cheeses containing artificial preservatives are set to be eliminated by March 2017, and chicken containing antibiotics important to human medicine will disappear that same month.
If you, like us, are out of touch with the whole antibiotic-free movement, let’s take a second to back things up and figure out why we actually care. Antibiotics are used to treat infections caused by bacteria, fungi, and parasites. About 80 percent of the antibiotics produced in the United States are given to animals.
So why is this a bad thing? Overusing antibiotics encourages the growth of antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria which gives antibiotic resistant bacteria a greater chance of survival. Humans and animals are treated with similar antibiotics and untreatable bacteria is about as much a threat to people as it is animals.
The environment is not spared in this calamity, either. Significant amounts of undigested antibiotics and antibiotic-resistant bacteria are produced by animal waste, which contaminates surface and ground water, harms ecosystems, and can make its way back to humans. The reason such a concerning quantity of antibiotics are used on farm animals is due to overcrowding and unsanitary living conditions.
So we applaud you, Pizza Hut. While your robot cashiers may one day turn on all of us, we’ll sleep well tonight knowing balance is restored and you’re fighting the good fight against superbugs.
